Gas Sensing System Composed of IC-Foundry-Compatible Microcantilever, Advanced Sensing Material, and Intelligent Signal Processing

Abstract

Gas sensors based on resonant microcantilevers have drawn significant attention in the application of trace molecule detection. In order to realize the practical application of microcantilever-based sensors, three critical points still must be addressed: inexpensive and batch-fabricated microcantilevers, high-performance sensing material and easily operated signal-processing circuit with intelligent software. Herein, a gas sensing system with a multiand-interdisciplinary collaboration mode is proposed. A low-cost and IC-foundry-compatible fabrication technology of the resonant microcantilever is developed. For the example of trace aniline detection, a scalable metal-organic-framework (MOF) material of MOF-5 with ultrahigh surface area and abundant specific aniline-adsorption sites is prepared. For sensing signal processing, an interface circuit with intelligent data processing capability is designed. Composed of the low-cost microcantilever, the advanced MOF-5 sensing material, and the intelligent signal process, the new gas sensing system shows satisfactory performance for trace aniline vapor detection.